This invention relates to apparatus for containing articles to be sterilized and stored, particularly medical items such as surgical instruments and linens. Reusable medical items that require sterilization before use, are typically wrapped in towels and placed in trays to be positioned in an autoclave. The towels provide some protection for maintaining sterility after the completion of the sterilizing operation, but of course this is limited since unsterile air penetrates the toweling as soon as the bundle is exposed to air from outside the autoclave, particularly if a vacuum sterilizing cycle is used.
In recent years, effort has been expended to improve this process by providing containers that are sealed at the completion of the sterilizing process so that sterility will be maintained until the container is open. Examples of such arrangements are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,247,517, 4,251,482 and 4,372,921. Since the containers in those patents are designed to provide a near atmosphere-free condition, so as to best maintain sterility, and since it is also desirable to see through the container to observe its contents, the containers have been made of strong, rigid plastic materials to withstand the near atmospheric pressure differential between the interior and the exterior of the container. The rigid container is also desirable from a standpoint of durability so that the containers can be reused for many years.
While the apparatus described in these patents works very well and is useful in hospitals and doctors' offices, in some situations a rigid exterior container is not needed and a need exists for a container that can practically be used once and then discarded. In addition to such a container being used for items that are to be sterilized and used, there is also now a need in hospitals for a container for toxic wastes that are to be sterilized and then transported to an incinerator.